Duplicate(?) registry keys in XP - are they really necessary? do they slow down bootup time?

Running Windows XP SP3: In the registry key HKLM\System\CurrentCOntrolSet\Services\WinSock2\Parameters\Protocol_Catalog9\Catalog_Entries, I have a series of keys named 000000000001 through 000000000011 that appear to have the same values. When I run Autoruns, the first nine keys all have the description "Microsoft Windows Sockets 2.0 Service Provider" and the image path c:\windows\system32\mswsock.dll" and the last two have the description "Microsoft Windows Rsvp 1.0 Service Provider" and the image path "c:\windows\system32\rsvpsp.dll". Is the duplication causing a slowdown in the system bootup speed? Are the duplicate keys necessary?

If any additional information is required, please reply and I will try to provide it. Thanks in advance.

11 is normal.
If you use a common utility for repairing winsocks I think you should see 11.
However, When you rebuild socks manually, ....more specifically, if you were to delete the WinSock Keys and reboot so XP rebuilds the entries (then you need to reinstall tcp/ip over itself and reboot again), then you will end up with only 3 entries. XP comms still works.

I don't know the particulars, however, I think the answer to your quesions are:
1) no, it is not slowing things down, and
2) no, they are not necessary (but I do not know why they are there.

btw, just for the record, to manually install tcp "over itself after deleting the winsock keys, do this...

**! but first... if you are going to mess about with winsocks, you might as well download a utility that easily sorts it out fo you.

- Open the properties window of the network connection in question
- Click Install
- Click Protocol, then Add
- Click Have Disk
- Type the path to the \%systemroot%\inf folder (usually C:\Windows\inf) and
click OK (if you try to "Browse" it may not show up in the list)
- "Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)" should now appear in the list of available
protocols. Select it and click OK.
- Restart the computer

If you look on the values of Protocol_Catalog9, it tells you how many Num_Catalog_Entries are. So the number of entries is normal (both WindowsXP sp3 and Windows 7 confirmed). So the answer is no, it is not slowing boot up speed. You should be looking at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run - values for ARM, ADOBE, Quicktime, and java are entriely not necessary. Also, look in HKCU\Software\\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run - you should only have ctfmon. Look in your startup folder, you should not need anything there. You should also check your paging file size (rule is 1.5 times the amount of ram you have, for the minimum and double for the max (provided you have the free disk space)). You can also change your user variables temp directories to match your system variables when fixing your paging file size (System Control Panel>Advanced>performance Settings for the paging file size - System Control Panel>Advanced>Environmental Variables for the temp directory changes).

If these fixes do not help with boot up, try installing and running malwarebytes to see if there are any malware critters running around your system. And above all, add more ram (up to 4gigs for x86 system which is normal and up to as many gigs as your board handles for x64 systems. if your budget is limited, the paging file changes will help.

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